Archive for the ‘Brian Lebarton’ Category

So, first… the new Thurston Moore album, Demolished Thoughts, will be released on May 24. That’s the cover there. Beck produced it, and I’m quite excited to hear what the two of them did together. (Will it be half as creative and amazing as the Yanni covers?!)

Second, I’m sure you all have seen lately that some of the Scott Pilgrim outtakes hit some websites lately. To me, it shows just how much eager interest there always is for Beck material! A few of the links I’ve seen have stated that Whiskeyclone leaked the songs, and for the record, that is not so. We’ve known about them since they initially leaked 6 months ago or so, when they were played on a web radio show. Some fans grabbed them from that stream, and they’ve been around since then. What caused their recent “discovery” and thrust into the mp3-blog world this week, I have no idea.

The 3 songs that were taken from the web stream are “Disgusting Rainbow,” “No Fun,” and “Gasoline Eyes.” They were outtakes from the sessions where Beck and Brian LeBarton wrote a pile of songs to be used as Sex Bob-Omb’s songs in the Scott Pilgrim film. They did not make the final cut for the film, or the soundtrack.

A fourth song, “Indefatigable,” also leaked. It is not from the web stream. It was included in the film, but was not released on the soundtrack. The track that surfaced there was ripped from the DVD and then looped to make a slightly more complete song.

Hi, Beck freaks. Every once in awhile, I like to summarize the upcoming releases and news. As I’ve said on here before, we’re not really a news blog in a normal way, but like to keep you up with everything (and especially the things, say, Pitchfork may not know about).

The last couple of years, we know Beck has been extremely busy. And since there’s been no shows, that means lots of records! While there’s nothing concrete about any new Beck albums, there are a lot of upcoming things to look forward to. In no particular order:

1. Jamie Lidell Compass: A few years ago, Jamie opened a tour for Beck, and they’ve done some unreleased tracks together (and Record Club 3). When he was starting his new album, Beck called and asked if he needed production help, and they spent a number of sessions working on tracks. The album is done, will be released on May 18, and Beck is on about half the tracks (producing, writing, playing instruments).

2. Tobacco Maniac Meat: The lead guy of the cool electro group, Black Moth Super Rainbow, has a few solo albums. His new one is out on May 25, and Beck added vocals and lyrics to two tracks: “Fresh Hex” and “Grape Aerosmith.” Here’s a story about the collaboration.

3. Scott Pilgrim soundtrack: A movie is being made of the comic/graphic novel series, Scott Pilgrim. I haven’t read it, but it concerns a lot of bands. Beck has provided the music for one of the bands, apparently recording a ton of two-man garage band rock tracks with Brian LeBarton for it. The movie is out in the summer, not sure what’s planned for the soundtrack, which was compiled by Nigel Godrich.

4. “Life During Wartime”: Beck and Devendra Banhart perform the title track to the upcoming Todd Solandz film, Life During Wartime. (It is not the Talking Heads classic of the same name.)

5. Record Club 4: The great third Record Club just finished, and beck.com says that the fourth will return in a couple of weeks (and with “big surprises”). Keep checking Beck.com for that!

6. John Martyn tribute album: Beck has covered John Martyn in the past, in the early 2000s, he used to do “Go Easy” live on occasion. Martyn unfortunately died last year, and Beck is giving a version of “Stormbringer” to an upcoming tribute album. He recorded this in Nashville a few years ago, when he and his band stopped in and did a bunch of covers (he put a Lee Hazlewood cover up on beck.com once from this sessoin). I have no other info about when the album will be released.

7. The full cover of Sonic Youth’s album, Evol seems to have been forgotten. I wonder what happened to this? Last April, a vinyl single came out from it (“Green Light”), but nothing else has been mentioned since. Some reports said it was to be on cassette only. Where is this, I’m dying to hear it!

8. Beck was in the studio recording last November or so, according to beck.com. No mention on what exactly.

Those are the ones worth mentioning–there’s other old recordings that seem to have just been for fun (direct-to-vinyl studio experiments and stuff), and are probably long-gone.

UPDATE: Thanks Scott, I don’t know how I forgot about this! About a year ago, we got a free mp3 saying it was from the lost 2nd K Records album, and a promise that more was coming. This hasn’t happened yet, and nothing else has been heard from it or of it! How frustrating.

So hot on the heels of Beck’s collaboration with Charlotte Gainsbourg comes today’s news that he appears on the upcoming album, Compass by Jamie Lidell.

Lidell, of course, is on the current third Record Club, which should be wrapping up soon (there’s one track left on the album, unless they did some of the CD bonus tracks). I’m told there will be a fourth Record Club, but have no idea who is on it or what they covered. I have some theories based on who was in Los Angeles 6 months ago, but we’ll wait and see. :)

Lidell first entered Beck’s circle when he opened one of the Information tours. Lidell would often play with the band, as well as doing sets with them in spontaneous bar shows. Since then, the two have recorded together occasionally (we know about this and this but both are unreleased). Nothing had been released until Record Club 3. Also appearing on Compass is Brian LeBarton, James Gadson, Feist, and Nikka Costa (who is married to Wounded Cougar guitarist, Justin Stanley, so I’m hoping more WuCu is on there too).

UPDATE: A couple of hours after I wrote this, Beck.com notes a bit more about what his involvement was with this record: “Beck worked last year with singer Jamie Lidell on his new forthcoming album The Compass. He produced, recorded and co-wrote songs, as well as performed on several others. Sessions began early last year and continued in the summer. The album will be out in May but you can hear the first song “The Compass,” which was recorded by Beck at Oceanway Studios (where Sea Change and Mutations were done) and features him on acoustic guitar and percussion. “

So recent press releases about a new charity project have hit the webz. We, of course, already knew about it, since last September. But to sum it up, this project had a bunch of superstar legends each personally ask a favorite artist of a younger generation to cover one of their songs. Bob Dylan asked Beck to do “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat. ”

I’m dying to know, did Dylan just call Beck up personally and Beck said “hell yes, sir!” Regardless, Beck and his current main music man Brian Lebarton went into the studio and cooked up a nice bluesy version of the Dylan song, mixing a little electronica into the song too. Beck than promptly began playing the song live through the fall.

Heroes, the name of the CD project, goes to support children around the world adversely affected by war, so be sure to buy it on February 16.

Just in case you haven’t seen this yet, there was a video for “Modern Guilt”:

I assume many may have already known this video, but wanted to share it as a lead in to these great looking Modern Guilt-inspired holiday chocolates. They were made by the lovely Yukari, and I wanted to share them with everyone! :)

I would say the second night at Club Nokia was pretty similar in quality, but different enough in setlist to make it worthwhile. If I had to choose, I liked the second night better, even though the opening act (Jay Reatard) was completely off the mark (i.e., lame). Regardless, Beck came out and opened up with “Where It’s At” — a unique choice to open with, I don’t recall that happening before. It’s great for a show to start with those chords! “Pay No Mind” was tonight’s “Hollow Log,” a short acoustic thing Beck tossed out that was not on the official setlist. Surprisingly, “Devils Haircut” may have been my favorite song of the night. Beck introduced “Star Power” as “we’re going to cover a Sonic Youth song,” and they pretty much nailed it. He also said this was his last show of the year.

Beck has scheduled two shows at the grand opening of Club Nokia, a new club in downtown Los Angeles. Last night was the first. It was a loud, rocking show, almost ferocious in its attack. It felt like to me that a lot of people were there for the grand opening of LA’s new club, and not Beck, which was a mixed blessing. The crowd was stoked most of the time and really into it, but at the same time it seemed to lack something normal LA club shows have. Anyway, it was fun.

Jenny Lewis opened–I was never a big fan, but her band was amazing, and I’m definitely more interested in her now. I actually would love to hear Beck with a band like that sometime.

The sound quality of the show was maybe a little bass heavy, but I like that myself, and overall thought it sounded amazing. Some of Tron’s keyboard effects sounded brilliant, in a 3D way, they were like circling my head. Because of that, and the crowd response, the Gameboy tracks (“Hell Yes”/”Black Tamborine”/”Clap Hands”) were a total blast. (I generally hate all those songs!)

During “Nausea,” Beck’s son came and stood on stage next to Beck for a bit. Beck didn’t notice at first, but when he did, he laughed and smiled and pointed at him. Then his son was taken back, and given a maraca to shake.

“Orphans” was done full electric, faster… last time I saw Beck, they did it with a mix of electric and acoustic, sounding like the album. “Sunday Sun” was a surprise. “Hollow Log” wasn’t on the setlist–Beck just said “you guys want to hear some fingerpickin’?” and busted it out.

And finally Beck introduced “a very special guest,” and everyone’s favorite dancer, Ryan5000, came out to dance for the 3 encore songs. Welcome back Ryan!

So over the last week, there’s been a little bit of news here and there, thought I’d provide a summary.

Two weekends ago, Beck sold tickets on Saturday morning to a show here in LA Monday night. It was at his usual pre-tour warmup club, The Echo (he’s done this 3-4 times in the last few years). On Monday afternoon, the show was cancelled, citing scheduling conflicts. Also there were unsubstantiated rumors about that Beck was unhappy that there were scalpers scalping the tickets for obscene amounts. Either way, show didn’t happen.

Then last night, Beck and his new band finally played The Echo. There was not very much advance notice to fans, tickets weren’t sold. The LA Times, after the fact, called it “invitation-only.” They played a bunch of hits, and 4 of the new songs. I’ll put more on the show on Hijacked Flavors when I get a chance.

Beck’s new band is guitarist (Jessica Dobson (who makes music as Deep Sea Driver), Bram Inscore on bass, Scott McPherson on drums (who played with Elliott Smith), and Brian LeBarton is back on keys (until Wounded Cougar takes off again). Welcome to the new band members!

The album, by the way, is thus:

1. Orphans (with Cat Power)
2. Gamma Ray
3. Chemtrails (listen to it on beck.com!)
4. Modern Guilt (watch Beck play it live at the Echo last night here!)
5. Youthless (also the name of an old poetry zine Beck made as a kid)
6. Walls (with Cat Power)
7. Replica (apparently drum-n-bass-y)
8. Souls Of A Man
9. Profanity Prayers
10. Volcano

Not sure what happened to the song “Beggar’s Shoes” yet; it could be “Soles Of A Man” maybe?

Also… expect the album in about a month (or so I’m told; it could change).

1. First, and most intriguingly, Beck’s long-time musical director/bassist/friend, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, has reported that he will not be in Beck’s bad on the upcoming Modern Guilt tour. Only Brian Lebarton, the keyboardist, from the Guero/Info tours remains. If you’ve seen Beck live at all since 1996, you’ve probably seen JMJ and his fro–the only times he wasn’t in the group was on (some) of the Sea Change tours. There were 4 Sea Change tours: Beck toured alone, with the Flaming Lips, with JMJ in Australia, and then with a new band without JMJ for the summer of ’03. Also during 2005, JMJ was not in the band, but he rejoined them in 2006. JMJ’s bass mastery, leather outfist, and general bad-assness will be missed, but really, new bands = new sounds = exciting new shows.

No word yet on who else is joining. One rumor is that one of the members of Islands was asked to drum (Beck’s been a fan for a few years, they have a remix on Guerolito), but he said no. More info on all that as we find out.

2. Next, and I find this absolutely fascinating. Over on Beck’s myspace page, recently his Top 8 Friends were changed to 8 ancient Greek figures: Alexander The Great, Archimedes, Protagoras, Aristotle, Sappho, Archaenus, Socrates, and Pythagoras. And, on their myspace pages, their only friends are Beck and Tom (the Myspace guy). So clearly, Beck (or at least his marketing team) had something to do with it. But why? Is it some indication of what the album marketing will be like? Maybe someone’s just being random? Is it some play on the ancient figures with modern guilt? A quick Google search indicates that “modern guilt” may have some connection to Greek philosophy, and/or existentialism (my thoughts on Beck and existentialism are a constantly growing list, but that’s another post). Hopefully more clues about what’s behind all this is forthcoming, or maybe it’s just a bit of random nonsense, I dunno.